Habits
by Tahiri Solo
Summary: Another of my missing moments, this one from Jedi Bounty. (Jaina/Zekk)


Habits  
By Tahiri Solo  
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Disclaimer: All the characters, places, and such mentioned in this fic are the property of Lucasfilm. I own nothing and am in no way getting paid for this story. Also, if this bears any resemblance to stories written by others, that is purely coincidental. No infringement is intended.  
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A/N: This Jedi Bounty missing moment covers two scenes, and I quote: "Zekk longed to leave the weapons controls to tend to Jaina's injuries and reassure himself that she was all right" (page 211) and "Zekk rarely left Jaina's side" (page 214 - that was after they put them all in the med center.)  
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When Master Skywalker finished discussing their rendezvous plans with Lowbacca and they launched into hyperspace, Zekk turned to the blue eyed Jedi Master.  
  
"Do you mind handling things up here for a while? I have to go see Jaina and make sure she's okay."  
  
Luke nodded, trying hard to conceal his grin, but amusement still showed in his twinkling blue eyes. "Go ahead."  
  
"Thank you." With that, Zekk stood up, and Luke slipped into the pilot seat which the young man had just vacated.   
  
Zekk quickly headed off to the cargo bay, where Jaina and Raynar were being tended by Lusa.   
  
When he got there, he found the centaur girl kneeling beside Jaina, bandaging a wound on her arm. He came up behind her. "Mind if I take over?"  
  
Lusa looked over her shoulder at him and handed him the medkit without protest. Standing, she turned to Raynar - and as she walked over to him, she paused briefly to whisper in Zekk's ear. "I think she's been waiting for you." With a mischievous look on her face, she trotted over to the young Alderaanian Jedi to finish tending his injuries.   
  
Zekk knelt down by Jaina, and, despite her obvious pain and discomfort, her face broke into a broad grin as soon as she saw him. "Hey, Zekk. Took you long enough to get back here and see me." Her eyes sparkled under the salt encrusted in her eyelashes.   
  
"I was a little busy, you know, what with all the ships trying to kill us." He tried to smile back at her, but the young bounty hunter couldn't conceal his wince as he saw how badly hurt she was. Sympathy mixed with anger directed at whoever had done this to her was obvious in his eyes and facial expression, and he traced a fingertip gently under her eye, removing traces of salt remaining on her skin.  
  
She smiled faintly at his action. "Yeah, the Diversity Alliance can be awful persistent. Trust me, I know."  
  
"What did they do to you?" Zekk asked as he opened the medkit and began to bandage her wounds. Despite his soft tone, his worry for her was still evident in his voice.   
  
As his eyes met hers, Jaina could plainly see the concern reflected in them. His protectiveness of her caused her to smile faintly and brought color to her cheeks. She hoped he wouldn't notice her blush, or else would assume it was part of her burns. "I'm okay, Zekk. I'm okay," she told him, sensing that he was truly worried about her condition. "That's all that matters."  
  
Zekk gave her a skeptical look as he gently rubbed salve into a burn on her arm before bandaging it. "You are not okay. You will be once we get you cleaned up, but right now you certainly aren't."  
  
Jaina closed her eyes wearily, sighing. "How come you're always right?"  
  
"It's because I'm older. More life experience," he teased, and laughed as Jaina playfully swatted at him. He did not press the matter of what they had done to her any farther, knowing the subject was too fresh in her memory to talk at ease about. Zekk was not willing to do anything that might hurt her. She was too important to him.  
  
Jaina stifled a yawn, then blinked sleepily at him. "Running through a place that's worse than Tattooine, then getting into a blasterfight with crazy people bent on killing you kinda wears you out," she joked.   
  
Zekk gazed down at her, a wave of admiration going through him. The fact that she could still joke after what she had been through . . . Her strength amazed him. He took her gingerly by the shoulders, being very careful not to hurt her, and tugged her gently away from where she leaned against the ship's hull. Jaina's eyes had closed, and she didn't even bother to open them as he slowly and carefully lowered her backwards so that he could cradle her head in his lap. He tenderly smoothed her hair away from her face, smiling as she sighed contentedly, relieved that he could do at least some small thing to comfort her. "Jaina," he said softly, now running his fingertips lightly across her cheek after rubbing salve into a burn there, "go to sleep. You're exhausted, and you need rest."  
  
"No," Jaina said, forcing her eyes open. "I want to stay awake and talk to you. I never get to see you anymore."  
  
"That's going to change," he promised her. "I'm going to be around for a while."  
  
"You better mean that. I miss you too much." She held up her hand, and he laced his fingers with hers, squeezing gently.   
  
"Of course I mean it. Don't you think I miss you too?"  
  
She squeezed his fingers in return. "Good. You're my best friend, you know. I hate it when you're not around."  
  
Zekk's throat tightened. He hated being away from her too, and he wanted so much to tell her . . . and many other things as well. But he couldn't force the words past his throat, and said instead, "Jaina, would you please get some rest now? I'm worried about you."  
  
Jaina gave a raspy chuckle. "Zekk, just because you're going to be around for a while doesn't mean I don't want to talk to you now. Like I said, I've missed you."  
  
Zekk shook his head, sighing. "You win."  
  
She smiled beamingly up at him. "Don't I always?"  
  
Zekk marveled at how beautiful she looked, despite the salt still encrusting her skin and her numerous burns, cuts, and scrapes.   
  
He instantly thrust all such thoughts from his mind, however, when Jaina winced in pain as he cleaned one of her cuts.   
  
"What's wrong?" he asked immediately, worried that he'd hurt her.  
  
"I think I have a rock shard or something stuck in there," she replied. "Stupid ryll mines," she muttered under her breath.  
  
Zekk eyes narrowed as he caught the words "ryll mines". What had Jaina been doing in the mines? What had these Hutt slime done to her?  
  
With an effort, he managed to clear such thoughts from his mind and concentrate on her injuries. As he looked closer, he saw that she was right. He withdrew a tweezer-like implement from the medkit, noticing that it was in rather deeply, then took Jaina's hand in his. "I'm going to get it out - you do have a little piece of rock stuck in there. If I hurt you, squeeze my fingers. Feel free to break them."  
  
His words and light tone made Jaina laugh, and she smiled at him. "You know I trust you. Just get it out!"  
  
Zekk grinned back, and within seconds, the shard was out. In another five minutes, he was done cleaning all of her various injuries.   
  
"There," he said. "You're all done."  
  
"Thanks," Jaina replied. "Can you help me up?"  
  
Zekk gently slid her head out of his lap and stood, then bent down and took both of her hands in his, helping her to stand as well.  
  
As soon as she was on her feet, Jaina's face was split by a huge yawn.   
  
"Okay. That's it," Zekk said firmly. "You are going to get some sleep."  
  
Jaina sighed, but did not protest as Zekk put his arm around her shoulders and led her to the bunks. She wanted to stay awake and talk to him, as she had said, but she was exhausted and knew that she needed rest . . . and she certainly couldn't say she minded being this close to Zekk, with his arm around her shoulders.  
  
Zekk, noticing Jaina's rapidly increasing fatigue, put her in the closest bunk - his. Jaina practically collapsed on the mattress - and as she did so, she noticed the holo he kept beside his bed.  
  
It was of her, a frozen image taken from one of the holomessages she had sent him, her mouth set in the famous Solo grin and her eyes sparkling.  
  
Jaina turned to Zekk, her eyes wide with surprise. He knew what she'd seen, and he smiled faintly. "I told you I'd missed you." He sat next to her on the bed. "You thought I didn't?"  
  
In response, Jaina leaned against him, laying her head on his shoulder tiredly. Zekk wrapped his arm around her, and the two simply sat there, content with each other's company after having been apart for so long . . .   
  
Until Zekk felt Jaina trembling gently against him and realized she was crying.  
  
He pulled away from her, gently tilting her face up so he could gaze worriedly into her eyes. "What's wrong?" he murmured, brushing away her tears, but fresh ones continued to fall as he did so, splashing onto his hand.  
  
Jaina turned away and hurriedly wiped away her tears on her sleeve. "Sorry, Zekk," she whispered. "I'm not normally like this - you know that - but I'm just so tired and I hurt and all this business with the Diversity Alliance . . ." Her voice trailed off, then, "Oh, what am I doing? You rescued me and took care of me and here I sit crying! Zekk, I am so sorry. I - "  
  
She was cut off when Zekk put his arms around her, hugging her tightly from behind. "Shh, Jaina," he whispered in her ear. Jaina felt a delicious shiver go up her spine at the close contact, and she unconsciously leaned back against him with a small sigh. "After what you've been through," he continued to whisper, "a lot of people would be absolutely in pieces. A few tears is nothing to be ashamed about or apologize for. You're so strong, Jaina - I admire you so much for that." He rested his head gently against hers, and she nestled deeper into his embrace, heart racing from the rare moment of intimacy. She thought she could stay like that forever, enveloped in his arms, and Zekk felt the same way.   
  
Neither moved - until Jaina's breathing became even and Zekk realized she was asleep. He smiled to himself and stroked her hair for a few moments before attempting to lay her down on the bed so that she would be more comfortable. When he tried that, however, Jaina's arms curled around him in her sleep and she refused to let go.   
  
"Okay, I guess you want to stay like this, then," Zekk whispered, not wanting to wake her. "Not that I really mind." Smiling faintly, he leaned back against the wall separating the bunks, letting her stay curled up against his chest and smiling down at the sleeping form of his best friend.  
  
  
When Luke Skywalker walked in several minutes later in search of his niece, he found her asleep in the arms of Zekk, who was stroking her hair as he gazed down at her.  
  
This time, Luke couldn't hold back his smile, and Zekk looked up to find the Jedi Master grinning broadly.   
  
"She fell asleep," the young bounty hunter said simply, showing no signs of embarrassment at the awkward situation.   
  
"I noticed," Luke answered, still grinning. "How is she doing?"  
  
"As far as I can tell, she's fine. She was a little stressed out over everything - and how could you blame her for that? - but she's going to be fine." Almost as if in response to Zekk's words, Jaina sighed in her sleep and snuggled even closer to him.  
  
This made Luke's smile broaden. "I can see that."  
  
"How long before we reach Coruscant?" Zekk asked.  
  
"Not long," Luke answered. "You might as well stay there with Jaina and wake her up a little bit before we get there. I'll let you know."  
  
Zekk nodded. "Thanks."  
  
With another knowing smile, Luke left the two alone.   
  
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Some time later, Jaina was in the medical center adjacent to the Imperial Palace on Coruscant, along with Raynar, Jacen, and Tenel Ka. Zekk had hardly left her side ever since she had been admitted, and he sat with her now, holding her hand as they talked.   
  
Jaina had finally told him about her encounters with the Diversity Alliance, and when she had, Zekk's heart had nearly broken. Being used as a slave in the ryll mines, chased into the torrid hot side and shot at . . . how could anyone do those kind of things to Jaina? She didn't deserve anything bad to ever happen to her, and certainly nothing like that. If Zekk ever got his hands on the people that had done this to her . . .   
  
As Jaina looked up at him from where she lay on a medical pallet, she could plainly see the anger in his eyes towards the people that had done this to her. Zekk seemed more upset about the whole incident than she was, and that thought made her feel warm inside. It was obvious how protective he was of her, and Jaina loved it . . . but still, she didn't want him to be so worried about her.  
  
"Hey," she demanded, "forget about it. It's over and done with now, and there was nothing you could have done to stop it, and certainly nothing you can do now. Just forget about it."  
  
Her words seemed to snap him from a deep reverie, and he smiled ruefully down at her. "I just can't help it," he said. "You mean so much to me - I can't stand the thought of anyone hurting you."  
  
Jaina blushed and looked away, squeezing his hand in reply. Zekk smiled, reaching out to brush a strand of her straight brown hair away from her face - which caused Jaina to blush even more.  
  
Noticing this, Zekk laughed softly, and sent her a smile that made Jaina's heart flutter. "You're so pretty when you blush like that," he told her quietly.   
  
All shyness was forgotten as Jaina looked up into his shining emerald eyes. Of course, she reflected, she usually forgot everything when she looked in his eyes. She could get so lost in them . . .   
  
Zekk's voice broke her train of thought. "I'm going to go so you can get some sleep, all right?" He knew full well that she wasn't about to sleep when he was around - ever since she had woken up on the way to Coruscant, she refused to rest again, insisting on talking to him. Zekk didn't mind this at all, but the medics had said she needed rest, and he wanted her to recover quickly.   
  
Jaina sighed, knowing that there would be no arguing this time. "All right," she agreed reluctantly.   
  
Zekk smiled again and stood up. "I'll see you soon, Jaina."  
  
"You'd better," she retorted with a snort. "Don't go running off on me searching for some illusive quarry, you got that?" She grinned.  
  
Zekk chuckled. "I wouldn't dream of it." He paused in the doorway for a moment, leaning on the doorframe with a playful grin on his face. "You really are making this a habit - "  
  
"Getting into situations where you have to come and rescue me," Jaina finished for him. "I know, I know."  
  
Zekk laughed, and with another grin, he was gone.  
  
Jaina stared after his retreating form. "Some habits are hard to break, Zekk," she whispered once he was out of earshot. "You have no idea how hard."  
  
With a small, sad sigh, Jaina rolled over on her side and drifted to sleep, emerald eyes dancing across her memory, even as she slept. 


End file.
